Hi there guys.
A friend of mine told me today the following. He said he saw it on a tv show:

There's an (apparently) Italian circus magician who introduces his lovely assistant. She's got a fur coat and she walks around the stage. Then all of a sudden the magician whistles and the assistant 'vanishes'; the coat drops to the floor and lots of raccoons start coming out from under the coat.

Anybody got any idea about this?

Thanks very much in advance.

Sound pretty cool. I would love to see it. did he say what channel or station he watched it on?

He's living in Madrid. The TV show that aired the clip is one where they show weird stuff from around the world or such.

I'll try to get more info.

The illusion sounds pretty cool!

Thanks. Please keep us updated.

No, she does not actually dissapear...

He is actually a famous Russian circus magician (I forgot his name, but I'll find it out later), he lives somewhere in the western Europe, it might be Spain. His act is very funny - he does very unusual comedy routines with rabbits, live foxes and doves. As a finale he invites a lady from the audience (stooge) and escorts her to a small "fitting room" like cabinet and gestures to the audience that she is getting a fur coat to try on. She comes out dressed in a fur coat, he makes a magic gesture and all of a sudden the collar of the fur coat "jumps" down and becomes a live fox. The next moment the fur coat visually transforms into hundreds of rat like creatures (some of those little animals used to make fur coats, not the raccoons) and they crawl down and jump from her body on the floor and she runs out screaming.

I have a video of his entire act and it is fantastic. If you watch the video you will know how the thing with the fur coat is done, but it still requires hundreds of trained little animals and a trained fox. This is one of the most original acts I have seen. This illusion with the fur coat is actually quite old. I did some research on it and I got to know that it dates back from the 1930s' or so, and it was performed in the Russian circus.

Is it Igor and Kio by any chance?

No it's not Igor Kio.

Hey! Thanks very much for the info Diamond!

Is there any chance of getting a copy of that video?

I and my friend from Madrid would be so so so happy !!!

Thanks guys again for the info.

I managed to find the video of this illusion. You can see it at http://diamondmagic.buzznet.com/user/video/

Yeah, there were not hundreds of these animals... I exaggerated a little bit (typical magician's exaggeration when trying to explain an effect), there was like 15-20 of them... By the way, does anyone know what these animals are?

Dude I can't thank you enough!!!
Thanks very much!!

Latigo

They are probably ferrets. They could be mink, but I don't know how trainable mink are. Very wild I understand. Ferrets have been kept as pets for a long time now.

I wish the video clip had a couple more seconds to it. The fox appearance is so quick, it's hard to tell it came off her neck at first. Had we seen her emerge from the box, the clip would be so much better.

They are ferrets...

THANK YOU very much, diamond!

Sounds like real "Redneck Magic" to me!

FWIW

Cheers!

Lol pretty funny Stanyon. I just got an idea. What about a redneck themed show?? What could you use in it?

Ah heck, I'm half redneck on my mother's side, so I could do that one.

Multiplying Busch cans.

Appearing/color changing trucker hats.

Sawing a deer in half, and mounting both ends for living room display.

Zig-zag outhouse.

Silk routines with red bandanas.

Just don't make ducks appear. They will be shot. Doves don't stand much of a chance either.

Lol , you are right about any animal that moves would get shot. What about
a bullet catch with a shot gun?
Bird dog from blammo box?
Racoon in a small shadow box?
Impaled hillbilly?
Disembodied sister

lol

That is the best, I've watched it 10 times!! I can't stop laughing.

There is a show on Las Vegas Blvd. called Buck Wild. There is a magician in that show and he does some redneck magic. It's worth seeing for one of the veriety acts, Tiny Bubbles! He has an amazing act and is so so funny!

DJ

Cool video. Hey Morgan, say "hi" to John for me. I'd be suprised if you guys remember me since it's been at least 10 years. Hint: I was present when there was some technical difficulty with a sub trunk.

Later, Anton